The MEC for Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea), Makalo Mohale, on Friday tabled his departmental budget for 2022/23 at the Free State Legislature's sitting in the Fourth Raadsaal. Whilst delivering his R631,738 million budget speech, Mohale announced that between 2015 and July 2021, the Free State Provincial Government spent over R37 billion on goods and services.

Mohale told Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) that had all that procurement been spent on locally manufactured goods this would have created many jobs and the economic spin-offs would have been significant. OFM News has previously reported that the Mangaung pressure group, called the Mangaung Forum for Service Delivery (MSDF), held a protest march to the premises of the department, demanding that small businesses be assisted by the department following the spread of the coronavirus which affected the Free State economy.

“To enhance the realisation of objectives of the Value Chains Economic Transformation Approach, we developed the Free State Public Procurement Framework. This framework will ensure that the government’s procurement spending on specific commodities, is reserved for local manufacturers.

The department views fact-based decision-making as a critical success factor for any new intervention in the provincial economy,” Mohale adds.

Mohale has further announced that the research capacity of the organisation will be strengthened to support this effort.

OFM News